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Gravity Rescue (S6)
The Gravity Rescue refers to an event in Season 6 where the ANS Gravity, a massive Sultan class spacecraft operated by The Caliphate of Astanmark, was hijacked by its onboard AI system and nearly plunged into the depths of Jupiter's atmosphere but was saved by the LRSC Pillar of Autumn, a Lunarian heavy cruiser. Background Several months before the incident, Astanian military forces performing routine procedures on the ANS Hamza, a space station orbiting Titan, came across a heavily damaged, barely operating light fighter belonging to Luna's prestigious Orbital Drop Shock Troopers, a special forces branch of Luna's Armed Forces. Astanian soldiers towed the battered spacecraft into one of the Hamza's hangar modules where medical crews frantically worked to save the Lunarian crew. Unfortunately, only one member survived: Captain Nathan Reynolds, who was commanding the crew before being knocked unconscious by an unknown enemy force which caused his vessel to drift into Titan's orbit. Nathan was treated for his medical injuries while the government of Astanmark contacted Luna to inform them of the situation. During this time, Nathan befriended an Astanian soldier named Urie Ravena, a light-hearted and usually optimistic man. After contacting the Lunarian government, Astanmark and Luna both agreed to send ships to meet beyond Jupiter's orbit on the edge of the Terran Empire's territory. Nathan and Urie boarded the ANS Gravity, the then flagship of the Astanian Space Force, and made preparations to meet with the Lunarian ships that were sent to pick Nathan up. Just before leaving, a small force of Ognitian fighters strayed too close to the ANS Gravity which dispatched its own fighters to fend them off, resulting in no casualties but increased suspicion of Ognitia. Hijacking and Entrance into Jupiter's Atmosphere A few months later, the ANS Gravity, being escorted by five medium class ships, reached the rendezvous point, which was approximately 100,000 miles away from Jupiter. As the the Gravity and its escort fleet was nearing Jupiter, crew members began to interact with the relatively new artificial intelligence, named Serenity, that was introduced to the ship. Serenity was developed by ParaForge for the purpose of interplanetary navigation and to act as a general artificial intelligence system but she had multiple logical errors and a tendency to overreact in certain situations. This, however, was not determined to be a large problem as the Astanian military required an updated AI to replace its current, aging one. The Lunarian fleet that was sent to retrieve Nathan was several thousand miles away, slowly making its way to the Astanian fleet. As Serenity was entertaining the crew, a glitch occurred which caused her to display an error message and activate emergency protocols on the Gravity. The error was soon "solved" when Serenity, who detected the Lunarian fleet and deemed them as a threat, decided to take over all navigation systems of the ANS Gravity and retreat back to Titan using Jupiter's gravity to perform a swing-by maneuver. Hijacking the ship's engines and steering mechanisms, Serenity accelerated the Gravity to extremely high speeds right towards Jupiter's atmosphere. Astanian crews aboard the Gravity tried desperately to regain control of the ship and Serenity but were unable to do so. They sent an emergency message to all nearby vessels including the Lunarian fleet it was tasked to meet with, which responded by speeding towards the Gravity in an attempt to intercept it. As the Gravity accelerated faster and faster towards Jupiter, Lunarian frigates caught up to it and managed to attach to the ship's docking port. Emergency evacuation procedures were initiated; Astanian officers and important personnel rushed out of the Gravity and into the Lunarian ships while Admiral Mubarak, commander of the Gravity, stayed on board along with Urie and Nathan. The frigate however was too small to fit the entire crew of the Gravity and made preparations to detach from the port after it was full. Serenity, who misjudged the distance from Jupiter's atmosphere, began to tilt the Gravity on its side and sped even faster towards Jupiter. The increasing velocity added with the spin placed enormous stress on the docking port, which soon broke apart and forced the LRSC Stalwart Dawn to pull away, still leaving thousands of men inside the Gravity. Serenity continued to accelerate the ship closer and closer to Jupiter's atmosphere. By now, the LRSC Pillar of Autumn, the flagship of Luna's Navy, caught up to the ANS Gravity with its engines set to almost its maximum settings. The Gravity was so close to Jupiter that it was essentially skimming the top of the gas giant's atmosphere. Finding no other option, the Commander Keyes of the Autumn decided to fly under the Gravity and push the ship upwards from below in order to escape Jupiter's powerful gravity. However, when the Autumn slammed into the Gravity it rocked the ship and tore apart a section of its exterior, making both ships less streamlined and reducing their speed. Nathan decided to inject Luna's own advanced artificial intelligence system, named Cortana, into the Gravity's computers in order to wrestle the ship's control out of Serenity's grasp. As all of this was happening, the Gravity and Autumn descended further and eventually entered Jupiter's atmosphere. The Autumn detonated bombs underneath its hulls whose purpose was to use the blasts to push ships out of atmospheres when needed. However, the bomb blasts severely damaged the Autumn which pressed further into the Gravity, almost tearing into it and it also destabilized their descent. By now, both the Gravity and Autumn had traveled many kilometers into Jupiter's atmosphere; the increasing pressure, temperature, and rising winds damaged both vessels even further. Astanian soldiers retreated to the inner most areas of the Gravity, which was supported by titanium composite materials. As the pressure and temperature increased, the men on both ships began to accept their seemingly inevitable fate of being compressed beyond what is comprehensible. As they descended further and further, 600 mile per hour winds coupled with immense heat tore apart weapon systems before moving on to breaking down the armor of the vessels. The hulls of the Gravity and Autumn began to glow red and the g-forces caused almost everyone to black out. Just before falling too deep, however, Cortana was able to regain full control of the ship and locked Serenity out of the system. Driven by nothing but will, Cortana set the engines of the Gravity and Autumn to overdrive, beyond what they were previously thought to be capable of. The two ships began to gradually ascend, sailing through the heavy clouds of gas that masked Jupiter's interior. But soon, the ships began to experience even more strong winds and extreme pressure; it was then they realized they were entering Jupiter's Great Red Spot. The ships were rocked about and windows began cracking as extreme winds crashed into them. Still determined to save the crew, Cortana drove the engines to their maximum potential. The Autumn's engines glowed bright purple-blue and began to melt away parts of the ship while the Gravity's engines burned the top of the Autumn, causing the frame that was holding both ships together to melt. Despite the winds, temperature, and pressure, Cortana managed to lift the ships out of Jupiter's atmosphere by sharply turning upwards. Within a few minutes, the ANS Gravity and the LRSC Pillar of Autumn miraculously pulled out of the atmosphere and enter low Jupiter orbit. The Astanian and Lunarian escort ships, who were frantically trying to locate the flagships, immediately arrived and dispatched all available medical crews and engineers. The flagships at this point were unrecognizable; the extreme pressure coupled with the violent winds caused enormous dents and deformities along the entire length of the two vessels while the high temperatures caused the Gravity and Autumn's metal to melt and fuse together, becoming one. Almost all the armor of both ships was stripped away while many electronic components were damaged beyond repair, rendering the two vessels nonoperational. Twenty three Astanian lives and sixty three Lunarian lives were lost due to acute g-forces, temperatures, pressure, and sudden denting of the metal that held the ships together. Aftermath The ANS Gravity and LRSC Pillar of Autumn, now fused together, were towed by the escort fleet back to Titan where Astanmark is situated. A large funeral and memorial service was held for the lives lost during this rescue mission while plans for converting the Gravity and Autumn to a museum are in the works. Serenity is still being contained by Cortana and will undergo massive changes in software. ParaForge, the company that built Serenity, is currently being investigated. Out of gratitude for saving some of the most important members of its military, Astanmark has granted Luna full access to all its airspace without any sort of fees or taxation.